Monday, February 8, 2010

Last year I offered my take on the six best Super Bowl Ads, and then offered my input on a seventh Ad that "almost made the cut." In the spirit of pro football tradition, here's my take on the 2010 best Ads from the 'Big Game'.

This year I'll actually focus on what I think is the most improved advertisement. Bob Parsons, the CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com, consistently and gloriously resurfaces the company's now trademark 'too hot for TV' commercials. Go Daddy's 2010 advertisement campaign was a huge improvement over their Super Bowl commercial from 2009!

From last year, I mentioned how the 2009 Super Bowl advertisement lacked attitude and an objective goal for its intended audience. Many viewers were left laughing but still somewhat unsure what Go Daddy's commercial wanted them to do. The question remained, what were viewers suppose to think after watching the Ad?

This year, for Go Daddy's first 2010 Super Bowl commercial, the overall message was much clearer and the advertisement provides a means to an end that viewers need. Sure, Bob Parsons hilariously created a "BANNED" TV commercial that was deemed "politically incorrect" for CBS viewers. But it still didn't stop Go Daddy from developing other creative and informative commercials -- TV ads which were allowed to air during the Super Bowl.

The start of the commercial was great. While rubbing Danica Patrick's back, who in appearance looks stressed and is physically "so tight," the amazingly beautiful spa girl then notices who it is and excitingly proclaims, "I love GoDaddy.com! I mean, Web sites, domain names, hosting," and Danica Patrick adds, "All for less than a dollar a month. Yeah."

This is excellent in terms of Marketing because it gets straight to the point, informatively, and then moves to fulfill the men-loving thrill of the hotness we expect from Go Daddy's commercials. The scene that followed was 'too hot for TV' so it was clear where interested viewers were to go next. I love it!

The actual Super Bowl commercial tells its intended audience what they need to know about GoDaddy.com, and the high level of interest it creates led many wondering why the rest of the advertisement is too hot for TV. For me, and likely many others, I did some further investigation into to the source of the hotness, closely examining why it was too hot for TV. *Ahem* ...For research purposes.

It totally worked; the aired Super Bowl Ad was great, and the rest of the Internet only commercial was totally hot!

If it's true that failure is also the driver of success, Go Daddy's resilience on perfecting its Super Bowl marketing strategy proves this to be true. Semper Fi, Bob Parsons!

Update: Bob Parsons had this to say after Akamai declared the GoDaddy.com Super Bowl Ad the undisputed Web traffic Winner:

“Everything came together beautifully this year,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “We had a tremendous surge in Web traffic, sustained the spike, converted new customers and shot overall sales off the chart. This is a textbook Super Bowl campaign for Go Daddy!”